The Long Tail

The subheadline of the book reads "Why the Future of Buiness Is Selling Less of More" Yeah, I want to know why!

The author, Chris Anderson, is editor in chief of Wired magazine which I used to be a subscriber several years ago. The magazine is full of well-written articles some of which are too difficult for my brain to digest the information. Anyway, this brilliant guy has led the magazine to five National Magazine Award nominations. It might be time for me to dust the pile of magazines off and start to read it.


Anyway, this book is about the differencce between yesterday's limited choice and today's abundance. According to the book, unlimited selection, such as iTune's songs and Netflix's DVDs, reveals new truths about what consumers want and how they want to get it. The Long Tail happens when everything in the world becomes available to everyone. In the world of marketing, things that are likely to sell in the necessary numbers get carried; things that aren't, don't. In our hit-driven culture, marketers are focusing obsessively on the left side of the curve and trying to guess what will make it there. The top 200 albums in Wal-Mart's inventory account for more than 90 percent of the sales.

Now no one is focusing on the hits anymore. Let's zoom in and look past the top sellers. On the right side of the curve shows the existence of the niches. The 25,000th to the 100,000th (and so on) tracks are still being downloaded. And because there are so many of these non-hits, their sales quickly add up. Again, if you combine enough of the non-hits, you've actually established a market that rivals the hits. Additionally, the fastest-growing part of unlimited-shelf-space businesses--even purely digital services--is sales of products that aren't available in traditional, physical retail stores at all.

Chris gives a clear picture with an intelligible explanation of the emergence of The Long Tail--especially before the industrial revolution. I have learned a lot about American's hit culture. He also gives the nine rules for operatings in a Long Tail economy which are as follows;

1. Move inventory way in ... or way out.
2. Let customers do the work.
3. One distribution method doesn't fit all.
4. One product doesn't fit all
5. Once price doesn't fit all.
6. Share information.
7. Think "and," not "or."
8. Trust the market to do your job.
9. Understand the power of free.

Interested in The Long Tail? Go to the original article written by Chris Anderson in Wired magazine.